Project Gutenberg's The Philosophy of Evolution, by Stephen H. Carpenter

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Title: The Philosophy of Evolution
and The Metaphysical Basis of Science

Author: Stephen H. Carpenter

Release Date: December 23, 2009 [EBook #30743]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION

TOGETHER WITH A PRELIMINARY ESSAY ON

THE METAPHYSICAL BASIS OF SCIENCE.

TWO PAPERS

Read before THE WISCONSIN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ARTS, AND LETTERS
at the Annual Meetings of February, 1873 and February, 1874.

BY

STEPHEN H. CARPENTER, LL. D.,

_Professor of Logic, etc., in the University of Wisconsin,
and President of the Department of Speculative Philosophy
in the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters._

[REPRINTED FROM THE ACADEMY'S TRANSACTIONS.]

MADISON, WIS.:
ATWOOD & CULVER, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS.
1874.

THE METAPHYSICAL BASIS OF SCIENCE.

All knowledge is essentially one. The object-matter upon which intellect
exerts itself, does not affect the subjective act of knowing. Physics,
when stripped of that which is merely contingent, becomes metaphysics.
Physical science deals with object-matter, and discusses the signs by
which nature communicates her message--that is, phenomena. Metaphysical
science has to do with the subject-mind, and discusses the meaning of
the message. The one converts God's hieroglyphics into
easily-intelligible language; the other translates this language into
Idea. If this be true, there must be a unity of method in all science,
however great the diversity of the object-matter investigated. This
method is subjectively determined, that is, by the constitution of the
mind, and not by the particular form of matter upon which intellectual
energy may be exerted. If there is an essential unity in all knowledge,
it is because there is a corresponding unity of method in all mental
activit